


Revenant Roland (LeanderxRoland)

by insinuating_sarah



Category: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (Video Game), Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Gay, Gay Male Character, Gay Sex, I Will Go Down With This Ship, M/M, POV First Person, Romance, Video & Computer Games, Yaoi, Young Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 10:02:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15337500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insinuating_sarah/pseuds/insinuating_sarah
Summary: (Post Chapter 6 in Ni No Kuni II: Revenant King)Roland finds himself coming up with a plan to help Evan and the team bring Ding Dong Dell to sign The Declaration of Interdependence. He can't seem to figure out why Leander is so keen on helping the team out despite being loyal to Hydropolis. Is there something behind the Cloak?I'd suggest going ahead and finishing the game before reading this fiction mostly because I don't want to accidentally spoil anything for anyone. I want this to take place during Chapter 7 when Leander and Roland are creating the plan to sneak into Ding Dong Dell.





	1. The Archon Leander

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Omitted Memory](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15046055) by [KaiKayKoa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaiKayKoa/pseuds/KaiKayKoa). 



> This is my first ever fan fiction and I'd really love to get some comments on my work. I adore this video game and I'd love to write more yaoi fan fiction for ships that aren't super popular. This is one I really loved, but had SO much trouble finding lol. Shout out to the only other story with a Roland and Leander ship xD Holy fuck, don't hate the format, I hate it too. I'm trying here lol.

# Chapter One: The Archon Leander (Edited)

 **Roland POV** :

      It had been a little past a month since Leander had joined our eccentric group following the battle against Brineskimmer. Everyone including Tani, Batu, Lofty, and Evan seemed just fine accepting someone of such high esteem into our midst without even a second thought. Hell, Bracken, our latest addition, didn’t seem to mind him at all. I on the other hand couldn't fathom it.

       _Why on Earth did Evan decided to appoint him Junior Consul of Evermore?_ , I thought to myself.

      "Have you prepared the documents needed to build the Kingmaker’s Cathedral?” Leander interrupted my thoughts from the other side of the conference room to Evan. They had paperwork sprawled out near the fire place while I worked on battle strategies to advance towards Ding Dong Dell castle. I was just trying not to stare at them. I tried focusing on my work, but Leander’s figure kept distracting me.

      Bracken poked my head with the end of her pencil for at least the third time. “What’s wrong, Roland? You’re distracted againnnnn”, she kicked me with her prosthetic leg under the desk we were sharing. I swore quietly giving her a dirty look.

      “I’m not distracted...”, I clicked my pen and lowered my voice, “Leander is just sitting awfully close to Evan…”

      Queen Nerea had to have had a motive to send him along with us. Maybe she wanted us to be watched since she signed The Declaration of Interdependence. This meant if anything were to happen with the kingdom, Nerea’s army in Hydropolis would be forced to help us.

      "Maybe you should just talk to him...avoiding a member of our team doesn’t exactly seem like the most logical thing to do. But aye, you do you." She folded up the remainder of the paperwork and stood up stretching out her legs a bit, “I have some unfinished memoliths to run through, wanna join me Tani?”

      Tani jumped onto her feet obviously excited, “Of course! Let’s go!!”. Both of them headed off down the hall in the direction of Bracken’s quarters.

      The only people left in the conference room`1 at this witching hour was Lofty, Evan, Leander and I. Truthfully so, Lofty wasn't much for conversation besides the random facts concerning the origins of fairies or kingmakers. Evan was up much later than he should ever be and was fighting of unconsciousness.

      I turned my gaze to Leander who was looking extremely puzzled over a particular blueprint he was mulling over. I sighed heavily, beginning to feel the full wait of the adventures we had been through as of late.

      Despite acquiring this younger, more agile body, I was still an older fellow at heart and head. I was fairly certain I was just staring at Leander at this point, he must’ve begun to notice it.

      “If I may be so bold”, Leander pushed his glasses up, “why is it you feel the need to constantly watch me? It’s almost as if I'm back home under the all-seeing eye”. He was half-smiling as he stood up and began collecting his papers.

      Evan slumbered off with Lofty in toe, taking that as a queue to head to sleep. I simply crossed my arms and studied his expression, “you're far too comfortable around Evan. He's too young to understand any hidden motives you might have, but I know how these things tend to go”.

      Leander was barely listening, “you think too much of me, Roland”. He sauntered over to the desk and sat beside me smoothing out his Archon’s Cloak. He sat back in his chair, pushed up his glasses, and awaited a response.

      I couldn't. I just couldn't formulate a proper sentence now that Leander was right next to me. My mouth fell open a little bit, “um…”, I was staring straight into his eyes as my cheeks became flushed.

       _Smooth Roland. Way to go._

      Leander smiled fully now, “I can tell. You make it painfully obvious there's more than merely concern for our King".

      “I don't know what you're talking about. Evan needs someone to watch out for him...that's all I'm doing”. I thought of myself as an acting father figure for a grimalkin who’d lost everything. I shifted my gaze towards Leander’s shoulder length hair, he'd decided to let it run a tad wild today; it was sticking up all over. I became extremely lost in thought again.

      “You resent me as though I were Doloran himself. I swear to you…”, he brought his hand to my shoulder, “I want nothing more than for both Hydropolis and Evermore to remain interdependent and for our common enemy to meet his fate. Please trust me, Roland”. Leander was looking at me with such earnest meaning in his eyes.

      I could feel the heat of my cheeks turning red, he never spoke to me like this. We had barely spoke at all outside of our day to day functions.

       _Where did all of this confidence come from?_

      I gathered all of my paperwork hastily into my arms, “everything is fine, I understand. I-I’m heading to bed.  
We can discuss our plans to approach Ding Dong Dell in the morning”. Standing up before Leander could object, I booked it off back into the direction of my bedroom with a million thoughts running through my head.

       _Roland, you can’t daydream about him while also hating him. You can't think about his hair while devising skeeming plans. You can certainly not almost kiss someone simply because they touch your shoulder. Get a hold of yourself._

      I was trying very hard to relax a little bit now that I was in the safety of my bedroom. What could I do though? Leander had the trust of everyone around us before he even became a member of the team. And now that he was living in the castle, it was becoming extremely difficult to continue to ignore him.  
I needed to sleep, but God was it going to be difficult tonight.


	2. The Day Ahead

# Chapter 2: The Day Ahead

 

**Roland POV:**

     

     “Higgely Pig!! HIG HIG HIGGLEY PIGGELY”, a bright and boisterous Jumblie the Lovely sun higgledy startled me from my sleep. I sat straight up looking dead-eyed into the ‘sun’ that wouldn’t stop screaming, “I got it!! Go away! Bother someone else!!”, yelling for her to shush. I wasn’t exactly a morning person and didn’t exactly get the best night's rest. I tossed and turned the entire night and never seemed to settle into a proper slumber.

     Jumblie merely tipped her hat and bounced off leaving me with only my thoughts. I wiped the sleep from my eyes, _it couldn’t possibly be morning already, could it?_

     I threw on my swordsman’s robes hoping, maybe, to look more presentable than I felt. You could already hear the hustle and bustle of the kingdom between all of the traders, gatherers, and researchers beginning their morning routines. I peered out my window and confirmed that indeed it was already midmorning considering all of the townspeople fully into the day's tasks. Additionally, the team made no effort to stop the 'sun' higgledy from entering my quarters and waking me. Maybe they’d consider being sympathetic towards my exhaustion. I never seemed to be so lucky.

     “Good Morning, sunshine!”, Bracken came into my quarters moments later with her hands clasped together and the brightest smile spread across her face. She downs so much Strong Coffee every morning I’m surprised her heart hasn’t burst from the caffeine. She isn't exactly the morning person either, so she attempts to mask that with copious amounts of coffee. 

     “Hello, Bracken”, I splashed my face with water to further wake me up, “what are the plans for today?”.

     She whipped out her handy, dandy memolith and began reading off everything she planned for the team to do today. Something consisting of us touring the kingdom to answer any calls we could help with, Tani, Batu, and herself would be heading to the Sky Pirate’s Base to gather intel, and finalizing kingdom upgrades. A very busy day, indeed. Bracken was ticking things off of her list as she spoke and was filling me in on specific information pertaining to my personal schedule. I wasn’t listening very closely, instead I was debating whether or not to pull my hair back since we wouldn’t be in our usual attack modes. I’d leave it down. It looked much nicer framing my face anyways. Not that it mattered to anyone besides myself.

     Bracken gave me a look, “I know you’re not listening. Can we just go to breakfast, please? You won’t even pretend to indulge me, you grouchy grimchilla. Are we even friends dear Roland?”

     “Yes, yes, let’s go. I’m sorry, Bracken...I just barely slept last night…”

     That familiar grin spread across her face, “You were thinking about Leander weren’t you?”. Bracken had come to the conclusion that the reason I constantly stared at him and talked about him was because I was developing feelings for him. She couldn't be farther from the truth, but it was becoming even more exhausting trying to convince her otherwise. I had a tendency of becoming lost in thought and staring off into space was all. Leander happen to make me do this a lot only because he intrigued me as did everything that went on in this realm. This world was completely foreign to me and took a lot of adjusting to considering I was practically a king back home. 

     "Not like that, you dork”, we walked towards the dining hall, “I was just trying to figure out what Hydropolis could gain from sending Leander with us is all...I can’t get over how odd it seems that he fits in so well. He has been faithful to Nerea for years; why would he decide to leave his practically betrothed wife to join our team?”

     Bracken watched me as we were heading to our seats, “perhaps Leander just wants what's best for Evan and both of the kingdoms. Maybe Leander is just happy to be here like the rest of us?”. She leaned her head on her palms and smiled broadly, “I think if you two spent some time together you’d come to find you're not so different from one another.”

     At precisely that moment, Floyd came in with a Pile’o’pancakes (well more than a pile), various teas, eggnog, and omelettes for us to enjoy. Leander and Batu had yet to come to the table, but everyone else had arrived and began digging into the feast.

     “Goly! This looks delicious, Floyd. Thank you very much!” Evan’s eyes were clearly bigger than his stomach as he loaded his plate with pancake after pancake. I chuckled softly; he always seemed to eat as though it were his last meal. I took a small piece of Freshly Baked Bread and a tea choosing lightly as we wouldn't be needing our usual energy for the day, “Tani, is your father not joining us?”

     “Oh, he and Leander will be out shortly. You know how dad is and I don't think Leander got much sleep last night either”, she shoved a forkful of maple pancakes into her mouth. "Evan, Bracken, and I have been waiting for you lot to finally get up so we could enjoy breakfast".

     Batu’s booming laughter was heard from down the hall as Leander and him rounded the corner headed towards us. “In all my days,” Batu laughed again, “I haven’t ‘eard such a funny tale. A higgledy really did that to ye?”

     “Indeed. It was a sight to be seen,” Leander replied with a bemused smile spread across his face. My eyes were immediately drawn to him as he walked towards the last empty seat beside me.

     I watched after him as he pulled back the chair and sat down. Leander never struck me as being someone who cared about appearances; he generally only wore his Archon Robes. I noticed he wasn't wearing his usual purple cloak and instead was wearing only his white under shirt and long navy blue trousers. Taking a closer look, both were covered in wrinkles and must've been slept in. This was extremely out of character for someone who is held in such high esteem, it somehow made him look younger...more approachable even.

     “Your hair is down,” Leander said it more of a statement than a question. He sipped his tea and peered out over his glasses towards me.

     “It is. You look unkempt. Did you sleep in that?” It sounded like we were accusing each other.

     The air felt sort of tense even though no one else was listening to us, “I fell asleep at my desk…” he pushed up his glasses and looked into his tea, “Nerea and I decided to distance ourselves even further from one another last night. I told her that I will always be loyal to Hydropolis, but I cannot continue to be her fiance. It has never really settled well with me and I fear as though my heart will belong to someone else eventually…”, he took another sip of tea, "I'm meant to carry out my days in Evermore rather than my home and it has taken me many months to come to this conclusion."

     I could see the pain in his eyes; this development had really hurt him. This is the first time I saw any sort of emotional reaction from him since he'd joined us. Leander had chosen to remain a bit more hesitant than the others to reveal any personal information about his life considering all that was revealed by Nerea herself.

     “Leander, I had no idea you were going through so much. Here I was assuming you were trying to take control over this kingdom as well!”, I smiled meekly trying to make a joke. “We’ll find you someone much better than that washed up old catfish"

     Bracken enjoys eavesdropping on conversations that don't pertain to her and this one was no exception. She gave me an extremely dirty look and kicked me under the table again, this time much harder than last night. I bit my tongue holding back a slew of profanities as I shot daggers with my eyes. Leander knew all to well what Bracken was up to and actually laughed at the both of us.

     “Thank you, Roland. A weight has been lifted knowing that you do not truly resent me as I have been led to believe”, he smiled again letting me know I'd said exactly what needed to be said.

     “Alright, alright”, Bracken addressed the whole table now, “ we have lots to do today, I've given you all assignments, so we can prepare for the inevitable Ding Ding Dell invasion. Unless one of you can concoct a better plan than the one Evan and Leander have proposed, I suggest you man your stations for the day!”

      _Was it me or did she sound much more enthusiastic than she should?_

     “We’ll be split up to gather as much information as we can today. Evan and Lofty, you two will be attending to citizens in the kingdom. Additionally, you both will prepare supplies for the team for the battle. Batu, Tani, and myself are going to use the Zeppelin to head out to Cloud Coil to meet up with the Sky Pirates to talk about aerial battle tactics. Leander and Roland will be assigned desk duty inside the castle”, she pointed at us, “you two will cover any and all written instructions that may need to be sent out in a memo for the fleets”. Why did I get the feeling she did that on purpose? And I swore I saw a glint in her eye; she knew exactly what she was up to!

     I grimaced at the thought of being locked up inside the castle with him for the whole day...at least it'd be a change from our usual slashing of beasties. Just because we finally came to a resolve a moment ago didn't mean I wanted to be stuck with Leander for an entire day's worth of homework.

     Evan let Bracken finish and too addressed the group as to how we were all doing and how proud of everyone he was for stepping up to this challenge. Mausinger was going to prove to be a much more formidable enemy than any we’d seen before. It was extremely important for Evan to keep the team motivated for our mission.

     To end his rousing speech he stood up and said, “If no one has any objections to our mission for today, Lofty and I will head out and begin our duties”. Of course, no one objected, everyone seemed excited actually. Everyone besides Leander and myself. Floyd and the maids assigned to the castle cleaned up the mess we had made during our breakfast. We all thanked him for the meal and got out of his way.

     They all left to begin the day's tasks leaving Leander and I to occupy ourselves. Leander looked over to me, “I’m no more excited about this day than you are, believe me…meet me in the conference room and we’ll begin our work”. He headed off into his quarters to I assume gather all of the paperwork that would be needed for us to go over and I inwardly groaned at the situation we were put in.

     Bracken really owed me one this time around...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I'm extremely sorry for the delayed update!! I wasn't expecting anyone to read this really and the amount of positive feedback I've gotten ((even if a small amount)) means the world to me. Thanks to everyone who's actually reading my shitty fiction XD and leave some comments and love on this to help motivate me to update you guys regularly!! <3)


	3. The Prying Eye

### Chapter 3: The Prying Eye

 

 

It’d been exactly one-single-hour since the team split ways for the afternoon and my head was already aching for a break from the paperwork I’d been contemplating. I had my head resting on the table not paying a bit of attention to Leander silently resenting me for doing absolutely no work. Instead of trying to begin the countless memos we had, I was content with laying my head there.

Leander let out an audible sigh, “Roland, for the love of Zeta, would you mind picking up a pen and beginning some sort of task? It would be quite helpful”. He was scribbling notes with a golden, embellished pen and barely even glanced my way as he said this.

He was correct, of course, I was doing nothing to benefit our already drab day in the slightest.

“You and I both know Evan’s strategy won’t work...he is simply too innocent to understand that Mausinger doesn’t want peace between our nations...he’d rather watch Evermore be overrun with rats then ever sign our agreement”, I laid my forehead on the table and stared at my shoes. “We must explain to Evan that Doloran has greatly corrupted Mausinger’s mind and come up with a better plan”.

The scribbling sound stopped leading me to believe Leander was actually listening to me for once. I continued, “I’m beginning to suspect Mausinger is already aware of our foolish plan to invade him head on. He has a rather…”, I chose my next words carefully, “...watchful eye over this place at the moment”.

I’d become aware of the fact that the castle had been infiltrated by spies sometime ago when I looked up and noticed an unusual (literal) eye in the top corner of the Throne Room. This eye had a remarkable resemblance to the one we found in Hydropolis which initially led me to believe it was Nerea’s doing. Although they were similar, there was a striking redness that radiated off of it and if you looked closely, there was a small cat’s paw inside of the pupil. I knew at once that it had to be one of Mausinger’s spells that found its way into the castle. Not a good sign...

Leander looked extremely surprised by what I’d just said to him, “I hadn’t suspected anyone else to notice such a high level spell on their own,” he paused a moment before saying anything else.“Roland, you must come with me somewhere we can talk privately”

I finally picked my head off the table and looked up at him for the first time since breakfast. I’d almost forgotten how absolutely stunning his eyes looked. Even behind his silver spectacles all the blue oceans of The Revenant Kingdom paled in comparison. I pretended not to notice any of this and simply nodded my head in agreement. He was right to suggest that nothing we said here was going to go unheard…

The Mage pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose, stood up, and ran a hand through his unkempt hair. All the while he remained watching me as if expecting me to know what to do from this point forward. Leander really wasn’t a man of many words choosing to express conversation through eye contact and body movement was more his forte. You had to try to read between the lines if you truly wanted to know what he expected of you.

_‘Stop looking at each other and stand up, Roland!’. I broke eye contact because for some reason he was choosing to make me as uncomfortable as humanly possible. I picked up a notepad and pen off of our work station as if it was perfectly normal for us to move to a different room to continue our conversation. Truthfully, the only eye that I had seen was the one within the Throne Room, who’s to say how many of those things there actually were inside the castle._

Instead of waiting for me to decide where to go, Leander put his arm around my shoulder using it as a way to guide me in the direction he was headed. If he thought that was supposed to help me walk in the proper direction, he was dead fucking wrong. Having his arm around my shoulder nearly made me fall over my own two feet in awkwardness. He began guiding me out of the conference room paying no attention to how taken aback I was by his touch.

“Y-You don’t actually think I’m going to sit in your room do you?” I could tell he was leading us down the bedroom corridor and I don’t think I could actually handle being in Leander’s room with just him. Just him and his arm around my shoulder that I was becoming increasingly more aware of by the second.

”Oh of course not, we’re going to your bedroom,” he smiled broadly, “My room is much too small to house the both of us and all of the notes we’re bound to take concerning our mission. Plus, if we decide to take a break, we’ll have lots more space to lay about”.

A few of the maids that resided in the castle were now watching Leander saunter his way into my bedroom with me helplessly in tow. I looked down in embarrassment; Bracken was sure to have a field-day with the rumours that were bound to be spread.

As we approached my quarters as per usual, Jumbile The Lovely could be seen taking a rest on the windowsill just beside my bedroom door. She remained there most afternoons choosing to guard my door rather then join us on any of our dangerous missions. She paid no mind to our presence. I looked up at Leander seeing if his expression had shifted at all over the course of the events (of course it didn’t). Even though he was correct and there was most certainly not a spy in my room, I didn’t like how this was going.

“Shall we go in then?” He didn’t look down at me or even seem to be aware that I was staring daggers into him. “We have much to discuss”, he pushed open the door as he said this and dropped his arm from my shoulder making his way inside.

I slowly followed behind him rather nervous of what I might have laying around in there. What if he saw something inappropriate? Or found my secret Leafbook account? Oh god above what can of worms had I unleashed…

Leander made himself comfortable right in the middle of my kingly sized bed leaving me to sit on either side of him or the floor. He was playing some sort of cat and mouse game with me for sure.

“Why’re you merely standing in the doorway?” He motioned for me to join him on the bedside. “There is much to be discussed, join me and make sure to close and bolt that door”.

_‘He’s genuinely oblivious to how this appears from the outside, isn’t he?’_ I closed and locked the door despite the voice in my head telling me I was about to do something wrong. I turned back and slowly approached the bed setting down my pen and pad. “Leander, I don’t even know if I can fully trust you with day to day tasks concerning Evan...now you want to discuss secret missions with me?”

I didn’t really think he’d try to do anything to Evan, but I surely didn’t think he had our king’s best interest at hand. Leander was a man of his own queen and country regardless if we’d all signed The Declaration of Interdependence, he still belonged to the Angler City at heart. Until I knew where his motives lie, I couldn’t let him make decisions for Evermore.

“I explained this morning that Nerea and I have gone our separate ways for the time being. She is much more concerned with her kingdom, as she should be, to have the time of day for me. I trust she is happy and what am I to do, but do the same? I’m here for you and for Evermore”. He spoke with sincerity and even hurt in his tone. “What you and I saw within the Throne Room is known as a Prying Eye and is used just as the name sounds it to. It was placed there by a Mausinger guard to make certain any plans we have would be foiled. You know as well as I do if someone as bombastic as Batu or Tani were to find out, they would alert everyone from here to Fortune Square”.

Dammit, why did he have to make so much sense.

“I...can’t argue with that. I doubt Bracken or Evan would do well with such sensitive

information either. What do you think we should do?”

Leander laid back onto my pillow and let out a long sigh leading me to believe he had no other plan at the moment. He shook his head confirming what I’d already figured out.

I set aside my petty distrust and laid down beside him, “We’ll figure something out...I doubt Bracken really expected us to get any work done today anyways”

He looked at me confused following with a half smile.

“This is Bracken’s doing? I was under the impression that you despise me, why would she put us together if she knew we’d quarrel?”

He turned on his side so he could completely face me. I closed my eyes attempting to avoid his gaze and folded my arms behind my head, “she finds my discomfort rather amusing is all...she also has a sick notion that I for some reason am attracted to you. That’s why I was so against you coming into my room to discuss business. She’s definitely gonna find out.” An endless cycle of bullying was gonna come when Bracken finally made it back to the castle.

Leander contemplated this for a moment all the while keeping his eyes on me he said, “What is so sick about the idea of being attracted to me?” He sounded so innocent when asking this. It was almost adorable in a way.

“Um...nothing I suppose. I…” I just trailed off not exactly sure how to put what I wanted to say. I found Leander interesting and charming, but I had no idea what that really meant. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to understand where any of these feelings were leading or what they would develop into.

It was time to stop being a coward for sure; Leander had no ill intentions towards me. I opened my eyes and shifted my gaze to take in the wizard laying next to me. I was melting under his innocent stare. His shirt, the same one from last night, was unbuttoned at the top and being tugged down by the bed leaving his pale skin underneath exposed. His blonde hair was unkempt from not being combed that morning and I wanted nothing more then to run my fingers through it. It was an overwhelming scene for me to take in.

_‘Fuck this guy, he has no clue how good looking he is’_ , my brain was in overload from how close we were to one another. I wasn’t thinking straight.

“Are you alright? Your face is turning red”, Leander interrupted my day dreaming.

I touched my cheek not sure what he was meaning.

“Um…”, I trailed off again.

“If I may be so bold…”, he shifted his position so his head was resting on the same pillow as mine, “I don’t believe she is wrong in her assessment of your feelings for me”.

He turned his head towards me so we were barely inches apart as he spoke the next sentence, “You just don’t seem to be fully aware of it yet”.


End file.
